Pat Grimm is not bitter about the timing of her window as a high school and college athlete. She could be.

Grimm graduated from high school at Center Grove in 1967 and, four years later, from Purdue, the latter a year before Title IX was passed and eventually opened the doors for female athletes like Grimm who came later.

Pat Grimm(Photo: Courtesy of Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame)

Bitter? No. She smiles at the thought of her induction into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, though.

“There will probably be more people watching me give my induction speech than ever watched me play basketball put together,” Grimm said, chuckling at the thought.

The others inducted as players competed in girls basketball in the 1980s and ‘90s, after the Indiana High School Athletic Association crowned its first state champion in 1976. Names like Abby Conklin, the 1993 Miss Basketball from Charlestown who scored a then-state record for girls with 2,616 career points. Or Tiffany Longsworth, who led Kokomo to two state championships in the early 1990s and starred at Penn State.

For Grimm, playing girls basketball in the 1960s was almost a different sport entirely. When she was in middle school, girls were allowed to dribble only three times before passing. In her freshman year of 1963-64, unlimited dribbles were allowed. But the girls’ game was still far different. There were three players on offense and three on defense who were not allowed to advance beyond midcourt on either side. A rule was later passed to allow each team to have two “rovers” who could play on either side of the court.

“I was a rover,” Grimm said. “You were basically playing four-on-four on both ends of the court.”

It seems archaic now. But that was girls basketball in the 1960s. There were no tournaments, no championships. Carol Tumey, who developed the first girls athletic programs at Center Grove and was the school’s first girls basketball coach, was allowed to coach the girls for one night a week – a two-hour block on Thursday nights when the gym was not otherwise occupied.

Pat Grimm (left)(Photo: Courtesy of Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame)

The girls used hand-me-down basketballs from the boys. During her sophomore season, they scheduled a game against Greenwood at the end of the school day. They got to halftime.

“We came out to start the second half and the boys team took the court for practice,” Grimm said. “There was some discussion, then we went to Greenwood and ended up finishing the game at 7:30 that night because that was the only time we could get gym time.”

Grimm led Center Grove to a 10-0 record as a senior in the pre-IHSAA days of the Girls Athletic Association, defeating programs such as Beech Grove, Greenwood, Franklin, Whiteland and Southport. Grimm, whose parents supported her athletic endeavors by putting up a basketball goal behind her house and attending all of her games, once scored 50 points in a high school game.

“I was more of a point guard, though,” she said. “I was not a big shooter, really. I enjoyed passing as much as scoring but I was very quick. I could steal the ball and then thunder down to the other end of the court for a layup.”

Women’s college basketball was essentially an intramural sport when Grimm arrived at Purdue in 1967. She certainly was not recruited. But she liked sports and ended up on the field hockey team, which led her to basketball. The team was allowed to practice three times a week and played its games in the “Co-Rec’ gym.

“We felt lucky,” Grimm said. “We had to miss dinner those three nights we practiced, but it was worth it.”

Pat Grimm (right)(Photo: Courtesy of Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame)

Grimm had a part in women’s basketball history at Purdue, though she did not appreciate the significance until years later. In 1968-69, her sophomore year, Purdue was invited to play in the first women’s national championship tournament. It was a 16-team mashup at West Chester State in Pennsylvania, made up of teams of all different sizes and affiliations. It was run under the auspices of the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.

Purdue lost its first game to Southern Connecticut State, then rebounded to beat Kentucky and Northeastern before losing to Towson State. West Chester, one of the early women’s basketball powerhouse programs, won the tournament with no game closer than 25 points.

“Quite a year,” Grimm said. “We put a man on the moon, Woodstock and we played in the first women’s national tournament.”

It was not until 30 years later, though, that Grimm came to appreciate her role in history. At that time, she was near retirement as a national sales manager for Finish Line. She had become a fan of Tennessee and coach Pat Summitt and secured tickets to the 1999 women’s Final Four in San Jose, Calif.

“I always wanted to see Tennessee win a national championship in person,” she said.

Tennessee had won the three previous titles, but was upset by Duke in the regional final. Purdue did make it, however. And when the Boilermakers knocked off Louisiana Tech and Duke to win the program’s first national title in women’s basketball, Grimm was brought to tears inside the San Jose Arena.

“It could not have aligned any better,” Grimm said. “I sat in the stands and cried that night because I knew I was a part of it. They didn’t know it, but I did.”

Grimm appreciates her place in history, even if there is little record of her accomplishments. Statistics from those years are hard to come by. She jokes that her Hall of Fame blurb will be half the size of those she is inducted with. But she appreciates that the Hall of Fame sought to recognize her all of these years later.

“I would love to play now,” she said. “You get to practice and train. Just imagine how much better you could get with more practice. But at the same time, we were so lucky. There were women before us who never had that chance to play at all. We did.”